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posted by martyb on Tuesday December 14 2021, @11:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the send-out-your-kid dept.

Toyota owners have to pay $8/mo to keep using their key fob for remote start

Automakers keep trying to get a piece of that sweet, sweet subscription income. Now, it's Toyota's turn.

Nearly every car company offers some sort of subscription package, and Toyota has one called Remote Connect. The service offers the usual fare, letting owners use an app to remotely lock their doors, for example, or if they own a plug-in vehicle, to precondition the interior. But as some complimentary subscriptions for Remote Connect come to an end, Toyota owners are getting an unexpected surprise—they can no longer use their key fob to remote-start their vehicles.

In terms of technology, this remote-start feature is no different from using the fob to unlock the car. The fobs use a short-range radio transmitter to send the car a signal that is encrypted with rolling codes. The car then decrypts the signal and performs the requested action, whether it's to lock or unlock the doors, beep the horn, or start the engine. RF key fobs have been around since the 1980s, and GM added a factory-installed remote-start option in 2004 (no subscription needed).

Key fob remote start has nothing to do with an app, nor does the car or the fob communicate with any servers managed by Toyota.

Toyota has been offering factory-installed remote start on 2018 and newer vehicles equipped with Audio Plus or Premium Audio. To use it, owners have to be within 50 feet of the vehicle and double-press the fob's lock button before holding the lock button down for a few seconds.

Yet recently, as 2018 Toyotas have passed their third birthday, owners have been discovering that the fob's functionality is dependent on maintaining an active Remote Connect subscription. Vehicles equipped with Audio Plus receive a free three-year "trial," while Premium Audio vehicles receive 10 years. Once those subscriptions expire, though, the key fob remote start stops working. Toyota didn't change the rules, though that detail was buried in the fine print. When the time comes, Toyota simply cuts off access to one of the functions on the key fob already in the owner's possession. To get the feature back, owners have to pony up $8 per month or $80 per year.


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  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday December 15 2021, @03:52PM (1 child)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday December 15 2021, @03:52PM (#1205303) Journal

    You didn't give any source, and your comment is the first time ever I've encountered that phrase.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Friday December 17 2021, @02:51PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Friday December 17 2021, @02:51PM (#1205792) Homepage
    Let me be the first to welcome you and your little settlement in Inuitistan onto the internet - keep feeding the carrier pigeons, you wouldn't want any packet loss!

    https://survivingtomorrow.org/you-will-own-nothing-and-be-happy-is-just-feudalism-2-0-ee15cefa9f1b

    https://www.quora.com/The-World-Economic-Forum-says-by-2030-you-will-own-nothing-and-you-will-still-be-happy-and-a-Great-Reset-will-occur-after-COVID-19-What-do-they-mean

    https://notoriousrob.com/2021/06/youll-own-nothing-and-youll-be-happy-yikes/

    https://www.facebook.com/RussellBrand/videos/you-will-own-nothing-and-you-will-be-happy-the-great-reset/696865630990676/

    https://www.facebook.com/awakenwithjp/videos/youll-own-nothing-and-be-happy-the-great-reset/449128019561829/

    https://genius.com/Voiddweller-you-will-own-nothing-and-be-happy-lyrics

    https://internationalman.com/articles/you-will-own-nothing-and-you-will-be-happy/

    https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/You-Own-Nothing-and-Be-Happy-by-smARTgrid/63256077.FB110

    https://yogaesoteric.net/en/world-economic-forum-by-2030-you-will-own-nothing-new-world-order-detailed/

    https://medium.com/illumination/in-2030-youll-own-nothing-and-be-happy-about-it-abb2835bd3d1

    https://www.audible.com/pd/You-Will-Own-Nothing-and-You-Will-Definitely-Not-Be-Happy-Podcast/B096QYMBY5

    https://eksisozluk.com/you-will-own-nothing-and-you-will-be-happy--7033560

    https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/youll-own-nothing-happy-simon-montford

    https://www.amazon.com/Happytalism-You-will-nothing-happy-ebook/dp/B0968XXCWW

    https://www.realsimple.com/shop/product/you-will-own-nothing-and-be-happy-the-great-reset-wef-t-shirt-freedom-goat/96ff17ae-d6cc-38b2-9234-5c36ba979f69

    Note - I've not read a single one of those, I just wanted to make it clear that it's a very widely used phrase - those were only the hits whose URL referred to the phrase explicitly (dozens more have "The Great Reset" in the URL but the phrase in question in the title of the page, but I didn't include those). Micro-lie - I've seen the Russell Brand video historically; he debunks the common use of the phrase, and is probably the only one needed to understand what's being talked about, as the rest of them probably grab the wrong end of the stick.
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